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The Valley Press

Obituary Notices and Memorials

SMITH, Alfred
SMITH, Alfred, Born Sept. 16, 1932, in Riverdale, Calif. He was raised in Merrillville, Ind. He graduated from Merrillville High School in 1950. He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a weatherman on Guam. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Indiana. After teaching sixth grade at St. Pius Elementary School in Buena Park, he moved to Palmdale in 1964 and operated a cafe, called Kottage Kitchen, at Sierra Highway and Palmdale Boulevard, until the Antelope Valley Freeway opened and took away the traffic and customers. After that, he worked as cook or chef at several Antelope Valley restaurants. He also worked as a counselor for Rancho San Antonio boys home in the San Fernando Valley and at a boys home in Northern California. He went to work for the U.S. Post Office at its distribution center in Mojave in 1972. He retired in 1992. Al was well-known in the Valley as a karaoke singer. A Lancaster resident since the 1970s, he moved in April 2005 to Mayflower Gardens retirement community in Quartz Hill where he sparked up the frequent bus trips. Al passed away at home Dec. 15 with brother Frank, Frank's wife Dorothy, and their children at his side. Al is also survived by sisters Marcella Mazzaro of Brandenton, Fla.; Isabel Chidgey of Bakersfield; Julia Rietman of Dyer, Ind., and Muriel Monroe of Hobart, Ind. Al was a member of the Neptune Society; his ashes will be spread at sea.